Thursday, 19 October 2017

Cameron Macintosh and his Max Book Future Sleuth Series

Let’s start with
the most obvious question – what’s your new series about?

So
far we’ve got two books out in the series: Tape
Escape and Selfie Search. They’re
both set in the year 2424, and are about a street kid, Max, and his hazardous
missions to identify artifacts from the distant past – which just happens to be
our present day, or hereabouts. Max makes a very humble living from identifying
these objects, but there’s always a greedy adult or two wanting to take
advantage of his hard work.

Is there a
particular reason you tend to gravitate towards science fiction when you write
for children?

Sci-fi
isn’t the first genre I lean towards as a reader, but I find speculation about
the future to be a really useful inspiration for fun story ideas. It also
offers the chance for all kinds of meaningful discussions between kids and
parents or teachers – whether it’s about ways technology will evolve, or about
how our present-day lifestyles are impacting on the planet’s future.

The Max Booth
books are your first leap from educational writing into the world of mainstream
trade fiction. How has the experience varied for you?

In
terms of writing, there’s a lot more freedom. Educational writing usually
involves quite a strict brief, but that’s not necessarily a problem – those
parameters are very helpful in guiding a manuscript towards completion. When
it’s you who’s setting the parameters, the process can be a lot slower!

The
other main difference is at the promotional end of the process. With my
educational books, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to be part of the
promotion. If they’re part of a successful series or reading program, it’s
generally the reputation of the series that sells them, as much as I’d like to
take all the credit! Now, with Max, I’m doing interviews, interacting with
blogs and doing a bit of hustle to support the sales. It’s a new world to me,
but I’m really enjoying the ride.

What do you
think is the biggest trap that people should beware of when writing for
children?

Relying
too much on inspiration from books you read as a child can be a problem. I
constantly have to mentally detach myself from certain key books. It’s really
important to keep up with what’s being published and what’s being enjoyed out
there in 2017. For me, though, the big one is to avoid writing down to anyone.
Kids are incredibly savvy and they know when they’re being patronised.

How do you avoid
that?

On
a first draft of anything, I just imagine myself in the main character’s place
and try to experience his or her main emotions in that situation as honestly as
possible. Hopefully by the end of the first draft, the text has an emotional
and conceptual integrity that will survive the redrafting process. On the
second and third drafts I think more consciously about the age of the reader,
and how they’ll interact with the words. It’s then that I make any changes to
sentence construction or concepts to bring the text into line.

So how does that
work when you write the Max Booth stories?

Fortunately,
I find it gets easier the older the central character happens to be. Max is 11,
an age I have very vivid memories of being – it’s the cusp of great change and
the dawning of a lot more world-awareness, so it doesn’t tend to take too much
conscious effort.

What are some of
your favourite kids’ books on the market at the moment?

I
really love the Tom Gates books by Liz Pichon, and anything by Shaun Tan.
Another favourite at the moment is Ickypedia
by the Listies (Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins) – a dictionary of disgusting
new words. It really is laugh-out-loud funny.

Are they similar
to the kinds of books you enjoyed as a child?

There
are definitely some parallels in terms of their off-centre humour and slightly
odd settings, but I tended to gravitate towards longer books by authors like Roald
Dahl, Judy Blume and Paul Jennings. My most beloved book for years was Under Plum Lake by Lionel Davidson,
about a child who visits a wondrous civilisation beneath the bottom of the sea.
I know a lot of people find it too dark, but I still reread it every few years to
try to relive the magic of it.

Is humour important
in your own writing?

I
always try to get some humour in, especially when dealing with more serious
subject matter. Humour is a great door-opener for exploring darker topics – in
the case of Max Booth, I tend to use it when Max is dealing with the extreme class
snobbery in his future world. I also think that when you’re trying to excite reluctant
readers, action is important, but giggles will do even more to keep the pages
turning.

Is it hard to
judge what a child reader will find funny?

I’m
blessed with a very childish sense of humour, which definitely helps! It’s
always slightly dangerous trying to judge what anyone else – of any age – will
find funny, but as long as I’m getting a giggle from a line or a situation, I’m
fairly confident that most of the readers will enjoy it too. It’s really important
to keep up with the kinds of humorous books today’s kids are reading, and to
seek feedback from the kids in your own family or social circle.

Writing can be a
precarious way to make a living: what keeps you going?

It
comes down to a very strong belief in the power of stories – the ability of
this craft to remind people how intertwined, and how similar, we all really
are. Stories have the unique ability to remind us of this without specifically
reminding us of it – and to let us walk in other people’s shoes temporarily too.
It’s a real privilege to be part of an industry that values these
possibilities.

On that note, thanks
for the chat, and all the best for the next Max Booth adventure.

Thanks
very much. Book 3 is roaring into shape as we speak – only slowed down by
overly frequent coffee breaks!

The Max Booth
stories are available at bigskypublishing.com.au or through your local
bookshop.

Cameron can be
found online at www.cameronemacintosh.com.au, on Facebook as ‘Cameron Macintosh,
author’, and on Twitter @CamMaci99.